It's Our Turn Not!
by Ryan Phelan
Summary: A (somewhat) friendly competition between Raph and Don hits an unexpected snag...


**a/n: For those of you who have been following my story "It's Our Turn Now!" I am sorry to say it has been banned from this site. But since I don't believe in leaving loose ends I wrote this as an epilogue of sorts; it is a stand-alone story in its own right, so that the readers who missed IOTN can still enjoy this one.**

It's Our Turn Not!

It had been a busy week for the turtles. They had destroyed a Foot genetics lab, busted up a Purple Dragons carjacking ring, thwarted several robberies, countless muggings, and one attempted kidnapping of a diplomat's daughter. But for Don and Raph the real challenge was still ahead...settling once and for all who was the best fanficiton writer.

"Come on Donny!" Mike whined behind his brother's back as Don read an article about cryogenics on the CNN home page. "Go to the website and get the sentences!"

"Just be patient, Mikey," Don replied. "You've waited a week, you can wait a few more minutes."

"Yeah, or you can wait a few more minutes to read your dumb boring articles!" Mike huffed.

"Why are you so eager anyway?" Don asked. "You're not even in the contest anymore! No matter who wins you're going to be someone's personal servant for a week!"

"Yeah, but I hate cliffhangers," Mikey replied. "Besides, it won't be so bad with either you or Raph slaving away beside me. I'll get to remind you how close you were to the prize!"

It had started out as a contest between all four brothers. Each of them wrote a story and posted it on a popular writer's forum, letting the readers decide whose was best by rating them on a scale of one to ten; the winner would have his brothers at his beck and call for an entire week. Don and Raph ended up tying for first place with an average score of nine points each, so the turtles posted a request for their readers to suggest sentences they could use as the first line in their tiebreaker stories. Leo and Mikey, having been eliminated from the contest with scores of seven and eight respectively, were to pick the sentence they liked best. Raph and Don would then write and post their stories using that sentence as their opener.

"C'mooooooooon, Donny!" Mike whined louder. "C'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon…"

"Quit wasting your breath, Mikey," Raph interrupted as he and Leo walked into the lab. "Donny's stalling because he's scared. This contest is getting serious and he's afraid he won't measure up!"

"I won't even dignify that with a response," Don said. "But since I can't get any reading done with you guys breathing down my neck, I'll go to the website and get the results of our little request. Right after I check my email."

"Let me save you the trouble," Mikey said. "They all offer you amazing discounts on Viagra and other happy pills."

Don ignored him and typed in his username and password. After a minute his face screwed up in concern. "Guys, it looks like we won't be won't be able to continue the contest."

"Why? Do you concede defeat?" Raph smirked.

"I'm surprised you know that smart person word, and even more surprised you used it in the proper context," Don said. "But no. We can't continue because our stories have been banned."

"WHAT?!" The other turtles exclaimed.

"It seems we violated the website's 'no interactive stories' rule," Don continued. "That means we can't ask the people who read our stories to participate in any way, shape or form. It's clearly listed on this guidelines link the administrators sent me."

"I don't believe this! What about all of my awesome reviews??" Raph asked.

"What about the reader's submissions?" Mike asked.

Don went to the website and logged on. "Gone," he said. "And because of this violation we've been banned from uploading any stories for a week!"

"NOOOOOOOO!" Mike cried. "I love writing! More importantly, I love the reviews! How will I go on without their adoration? How will they go on without me??"

"Quit being so melodramatic," Don snapped. "We uploaded the contest a week ago, remember? The ban will be lifted tomorrow."

"I don't get it," Leo said. "Our stories have relied on reader participation since we started this competition over a month ago. Why did the administrators wait until now to ban them?"

"It would be impossible for them to check all of the stories that are uploaded every day," Don explained. "That's why the website has a feature that allows the readers to report abuse. I'm guessing someone out there in cyberspace reported us."

"Wait a minute," Raph said. "You're saying that some uptight by-the-book killjoy, with nothing better to do than ruin other people's fun, ratted us out?" He turned to Leo. "You wouldn't know anything about this, would you?"

"Ha ha," Leo said. "Look, I'm just as upset about this as you are, but rules are rules. We have to respect them, no matter how stupid they are."

"Leo's right," Don sighed. "But how are we going to resolve this tie between me and Raph?"

"Why don't we each just write another story and have the readers vote for their favorite?" Raph asked.

"What part of 'no interactive fics' don't you understand?" Don said irritably. "Do you want to get banned again? Or kicked off the website for good?"

"Like that's such a big loss," Raph snorted as he glared at the computer.

"Complaining isn't going to solve anything, Raph," Don said. "We'll just have to come up with another way to break the tie."

"All right, let's settle this the way we've been settling things since we were kids," Raph said. "You. Me. Dojo. Now."

"How about something more civilized for a change, like Trivial Pursuit?" Don replied.

"Forget it," Raph said. "How about cards?"

"No. Chess?"

"No. Pool?"

"No. Backgammon?"

"No. Foosball?"

"No. Mah Jong?"

"NO! No nerd games!"

"And no dumb drunken jock games!"

"EXCUSE me, gentlemen," Leo said. "But while you were arguing Mikey and I came up with the perfect game to settle this contest. One where neither of you have an edge."

"Yeah, and since our fans have been eliminated we're the closest thing to impartial judges you're going to get," Mike added. "So you two can sit there and fight about this all night or you can just go along with our idea and settle this thing once and for all."

Raph and Don looked at each other for a moment. Their faces indicated that they were thinking the same thing; it was also the kind of look one might see on someone who is about to make a deal with the devil. Slowly they both turned to their brothers.

"Okay," Don sighed. "What is it?"

---------

Mike and Leo sat on the couch, thoroughly amused by the scene before them. Raph and Don were on the floor, entangled in a fierce battle of brawn vs. brains.

"This is too funny," Mike laughed. "It almost makes up for losing the contest."

"I know what you mean," Leo said. "I could watch this all day."

"Just call it already!" Raph snapped from his very awkward position.

"Don't be a killjoy, Raph," Mike teased.

"CALL IT!" Don yelled.

"Okay, okay, don't bust a brain cell," Leo said. He spun the arrow and waited for it to come to a stop. "Left hand yellow," he announced.

Don and Raph grunted and groaned as they twisted their bodies into even more uncomfortable positions. "Get your butt out of my face, Donny!" Raph snapped.

"Why don't you get your smelly foot out of mine?" Don spat back.

"That's not my foot!" Raph yelled. With one final lunge, he slapped his left hand onto a yellow circle at the same moment Don did. Together they looked like one big two-headed turtle monster. Leo and Mike choked back tears.

"Man, I can't believe the camera was out of film," Mike said. "Would you guys hold that pose while I run to the store and…"

"NO!" They yelled in unison.

Leo smiled and spun the wheel again. "Right foot green," he announced.

More twisting and groaning, and then suddenly a loud thump as one of the turtles hit the floor. "No way!" Raph yelled, slamming his fist against the ground.

"Yes!" Don cried, jumping up. "I am the king! I rock!" He began doing a little victory dance.

"Okay, okay, so you won. Do you have to rub it in?" Raph groaned.

"Yeah, dude, I'm embarrassed for you," Mike winced.

"I'll do what I want and you guys will cheer me on!" Don chirped. "As of this moment, I own all of you! Leo, Raph, you will now accompany me to the dump. I saw several heavy machine parts I can use. Mikey, you stay here and tape 'Professor Electron' for me. And I don't want any of the commercials recorded, so you'll have to watch the show and hit the pause button whenever necessary."

"But I wanna watch 'Extreme Dangerous Stupid Cool Stunts!'" Mike whined.

"Too bad, Mikey," Don laughed. "Your master has commanded you!"

"Geez Donny, it's not like you to gloat," Leo said, stunned by his little brother's power trip.

"Oh, you're in for a lot of surprises this week," Don said. "Get ready for the revenge of the nerd!" He bounded out of the room.

Leo, Mike and Raph groaned. "Guys, let's make a deal," Raph said. "The next time one of us suggests a 'friendly competition,' the others are allowed to beat the shell out of him. Agreed?"

"Agreed."

"Come, my slaves, the dump awaits!" Don yelled.

The other turtles sighed and rose to do their brother's bidding. It was going to be a long week. A very, very long week.

THE END

**a/n: Donny won because he originally beat Raph by a slight margin; it was so close I thought a tiebreaker was in order, which of course turned out to be a big mistake since I lost all of your wonderful reviews! Thanks again for taking the time to read my stories and write all of those detailed and thoughtful comments. See ya next time!**


End file.
